On the afternoon of November 4, 1944, Ensign Robert E. McLoughlin, (22), was piloting an F4U-1D Corsair, (Bu. No. 50636), over the town of Haverhill when the aircraft was observed to go into a roll and then dive into the ground at high speed and explode.

Ensign McLoughlin was assigned to Carrier Air Service Unit 22, (CASU-22).

On May 2, 1944, a TBM-1D Avenger, (Bu. No. 25430), was due to take off from the Quonset Point Naval Air Station to participate in an aerial gunnery training flight. The aircraft was designated to be the “target-tug”, meaning it was to tow a canvas target behind it which other aircraft would take turns firing at.

At 2:00 p.m. the aircraft began its take-off run with the target sleeve attached. As soon as the aircraft became airborne the pilot raised the wheels. At an altitude of 100 feet, the right wing stalled due to recent squadron modifications to it, causing a loss of altitude. At the end of the runway was Narragansett Bay. The target sleeve hadn’t yet become airborne, and began dragging in the water off the end of the runway. Then the right wing stalled a second time and the plane went down in the bay.

There were four men aboard the aircraft; the pilot, a gunner, and two radio-men. (The Avenger generally carried a crew of three) When the plane hit the water one crewman suffered a broken left arm, another a lacerated hand, and the other two were not injured. All were rescued.

The aircraft was a total loss, with its fuselage having broken in half.

On the afternoon of August 21, 1944, two TBF-1 Avengers, (Bu. No. 23967), and (Bu. No. 06104), left Quonset Point Naval Air Station as part of a flight of several planes that were to take part in a routine training mission. The two Avengers were flying in a two-plane formation over Narragansett Bay along the western side of Jamestown Island while they waited for other aircraft in the flight to join up with them. Bu. No. 23967, piloted by Ensign Walter L. Miller, Jr., 21, of Texas, was in the lead position. The other aircraft, Bu. No. 06104 was piloted by another Ensign, and was flying in the number two position.

While both aircraft were about two miles southwest of the Jamestown Bridge, and at an altitude of 1,500 feet, they began to make a ten degree bank to the left. The air was turbulent, and while the bank was being executed, the right wing of the number two aircraft collided with the elevator of the lead plane. Immediately after the collision, Ensign Miller’s aircraft went down and crashed into a vacant house in the Saunderstown section of North Kingstown and came to rest in the side yard where it exploded killing all aboard. The vacant cottage was destroyed by the fire.

There was an 8-year-old boy playing in the front yard of his home 100 yards away who suffered non-life-threatening burns from the flaming gasoline sprayed by the explosion.

A second house in which an elderly invalid woman was residing was also set ablaze. She was rescued by two Coast Guardsmen, Meredith E. Dobry, of Bensonville, Ill. and Daniel Caruso, of Meriden, Ct., who both happened to be in the area at the time of the crash.

The other Avenger was able to make it safely back to Quonset Point without injury to the crew.

Both aircraft were assigned to CASU-22 at Quonset Point.

The dead were identified as:

Pilot: Ensign Walter Lee Miller, Jr., 21, of Morton, Texas. To see a photograph of Ensign Miller, go to www.findagrave.com, see memorial #38854830.

At about 12:30 p.m. on December 5, 1943, APlc O. W. Putner, was piloting an SBD-4 Dauntless, (Bu. No. 10543), 1000 feet over Narragansett Bay when a fire suddenly erupted in the engine necessitating an immediate emergency landing. The aircraft came down in the water about 500 yards south of Beavertail Point on Jamestown Island. Both the pilot and the gunner, AM2c A. A. Bartczak, escaped form the plane before it sank and were rescued. Both men were assigned to CASU-22 at Quonset Point.